In recent years, identification (ID) cards have become very prevalent in our society. Some examples of these cards include driver's licenses, employee identification cards, club membership cards, bond cards and insurance cards. As is well known, these cards are often carried in wallets and purses and most of them are handled numerous times over their life span. As a result, ID cards are prone to wear and tear.
Over the years, different methods have been used to produce these ID cards. For example, one method involves printing images using conventional printing equipment on heavy paper that is either pre-cut or cut thereafter into card sizes. These ID cards are very inexpensive to produce. However, due to the constant handling of these cards, they often succumb prematurely to wear and tear.
A more durable technique of producing these ID cards involves printing images on a plastic card. Plastic is sturdier than heavy paper and consequently, the ID cards thus produced are less prone to wear and tear than the heavy paper ID cards. However, the images printed on the cards have a tendency to fade away gradually with each usage. In addition, special printing equipment has to be used to print the images on the cards.
To circumvent the gradual fading of the images on the plastic and paper ID cards, the cards are sometimes laminated. For plastic cards, this can be accomplished by bonding a thin clear plastic material over the side of the cards that has the imprinted images. This is often achieved by compressing the clear plastic material onto the plastic card under heat.
One of the types of special printing equipment that is used to produce the plastic ID cards involves employing dye diffusion thermal transfer (D2T2) technology. D2T2 uses a thermal printhead to print an image on a card to allow relatively easy printing of images on plastic ID cards. However, D2T2 has several drawbacks. For example, the material used in D2T2 technology is expensive and not widely available. In addition, the thermal printhead itself is susceptible to contamination and can damage the printhead. Further, D2T2 printers are not capable of producing high quality photo images because the inks they use do not mix well enough together to produce a high gamut of colors.
Consequently, what is needed is a method of printing ID cards that is relatively inexpensive and widely available and that offers a wide array of colors for producing ID cards with high quality images.